Honda's new EU2200i model...

SidecarFlip wrote:

burningman wrote:
I have tried paralleling combos of EU1000, EU2000 and EU3000 Hondas and in actual practice they all play well together. And no, the smaller one doesn’t go into overload as soon as a big load is turned on. I can’t imagine any problem running a 2000 with a 2200.
I’m pretty sure you can even parallel an EU with a pure sine wave inverter but I haven’t (yet) tried it. As many - but maybe not all - of you know, when paralleling these things the 120VAC outputs of each are simply connected directly together. There’s no other magic synching signal, the parallel operation ports are only connected directly to the regular 120VAC outlets. An EU just synchs up to another 120VAC source, it doesn’t necessarily have to originate from another Honda. 60hz 120VAC is 60hz 120VAC.

I might try that out because that might be a good way to run an A/C off a single EU2000.
I’d like to try running a battery charger off the Honda to top off a pair of deep-cycles, which are paralleled with the Honda to provide the extra power to start the A/C. The EU2000 can usually handle an A/C running, just not the compressor start-up.

In actuality, it don't even matter what brands they are. All the parallel kit 'sees' is the output so if they are both PSW units, should make no difference at all.

Well, not as simple as it seems. there are 3 things that must be controlled when paralleling, frequency, phase and amplitude.

Frequency and amplitude between two inverter generators is likely to be pretty close under no load conditions. fractions of a hertz and maybe a few volts amplitude. something that can be synced together pretty quick and easy with good control circuitry.

Phase is another story, it is completely arbitrary and uncontrolled and will be between 0 degrees and +/- 180 degrees apart.

That is the big one that needs to be brought into sync very quickly, and very soon frequency and amplitude.

The easy case is with one running generator paralleled to another non running generator. The first running generator can easily be designed to control the second generator to sync the phase frequency and amplitude as it fires up.

And that's the normal (at least for me) starting procedure.

The second case is paralleling two running generators. This is a harder thing to do.

If both generators are running when they are paralled they do have to have a way to sync and phase the output voltage and frequency and amplitude and stay on the same exact frequency in phase and same amplitude and do it pretty quick, within a few cycles.



I've never tried unhooking the parallel cable between two hondas, fired them up then connected the parallel cable to see what happens. A well designed control circuit likely could accomidate this case as well. in the case of inverter generators that the inverter control circuit for generating the PSW output is designed to bring two units into sync for phase, frequency and amplitude with individual startup.
A stable control circuit needs to be able to have enough range to swing all three parameters into control limits anyway, so designing too be paralled after startup wouldn't be that hard to do at all.

If the frequency is off, or phasing is off and it stays that way it's an easy way to impending disaster.



Hooking one in parallel to a PSW inverter? question is will the generator lock to the inverter or try to get it to move? the inverter probably is not expecting to be paralleled with something else and likely tries to run off it's own internal frequency reference. and it only takes fractions of a hertz variation to yield problems. likewise with phase and amplitude.

worth a try, but expecting it to be universally successful is not something I would expect.